Let’s start by a quick introduction. I’m a geek; I’ve been using devices in mobility for a while. Since using a handheld I was dreaming that one day, I would be able to have only one device next to my phone for all my uses. Until recently, the number of devices in my bag only grew. Until one day in April this year, when the Surface Pro 4 made the dream coming to life…

My Surface Pro 4 home desktop setup

Back in 2003 I used for less than few days a Slate Windows Tablet PC based on Windows XP. I liked the stylus idea, but the experience was not so great, especially because most applications where not yet designed for this. Since then, the tablet situation has changed a lot. With Vista and then 7, tablet pcs evolved, and while the stylus was getting better, the rest of the hardware was still far from perfect: heavy, low battery life (expect 2 hours and a half at best). Then came the iPad, which changed a lot the state of the art for the slates: good battery life, light, but with a mobile OS and its limitations and no stylus. Then came Surface, and Surface Pro. I will focus this piece on Surface Pro 4, which replaced my previous 2 years and a half old Surface Pro 2 one month and a half ago.

Some time back I supported the Indiegogo project of ThinCase, a product which looked very promising, claiming to deliver a battery case for your iPhone in a very small form factor. I supported the project because I really wanted to see something like this.

Some weeks back, I received the case and started using it for a while to test how it would work. To be honest although the quality was not great, it was ok. Until one day I noticed that the screen seemed to be exposed to scratches if I would lay down my phone on a flat surface (something we all do at some point).

Just to be sure, I checked how the guys at ChargeTech were promoting the case. They are offering a “raised protective lip” as they called it, but this is not working as it should at all.

To demonstrate this, I have made a test between the ThinCharge case and the Apple Silicone Case, check the video bellow:

I contacted them to check if the product was defected, they answered that the product “is designed like that”. To be honest, their support level was not very good as I had to contact them again because they didn’t reply to my first email (to a Gmail account by the way).

What a pity that such a promising product failed on something so basic as protecting the screen.

Back in December I was writing a post about how 2015. if done properly, could be the year of the return of Microsoft. With yesterday’s Microsoft hardware event and the success of Windows 10 being installed in more than 110 million computers in less than 3 months of being released, we can confirm it certainly is.

The Redmond giant was able to turn around a negative number of the Surface family with the just wrong Windows RT approach, into good profit by changing the strategy a few generations back. The new Surface lineup with Windows 10 as the driving operating system for all their end user devices, this can only get better.

It seems this time Apple is in real trouble, as you may have heard, several buyers of the iPhone 6 Plus have complained about having issues with their phones while wearing them on their front trousers pockets or while sitting on them when carrying them on their back pockets. The problem is that after exposing these phones to some normal wearing pressure, they start to bend, and the #BendGate was born. I can understand if it bends if you sit on it, but not if you use it on your front pocket…

Yes, the company that you thought would never have a problem like this, because of their design and fabrication “High standards” is actually having a problem that will definitely have a negative effect on their image.

I personally would have never thought that Apple would have an issue like this…clearly, they could have done better and maybe focus on testing their phones properly instead of being focused on the secrecy part.

I don’t understand how companies of this size, with thousands of people working on the project and millions of dollars invested in R&D have this type of problems. You have to remember, the iPhone 6 Plus 128 GB costs almost USD 1000, so I think you should expect top quality for this price. Its going to be interesting to see if their stock value will be affected by this. Apple didn’t comment on the matter till the moment I’ve published this post.

Since Apple introduced the lightning connector on their devices, it has been a very nice experience. You dont have to figure out on which side the connector should be plugged because it would work either way (contrary to the micro usb plug).

Unfortunately, not everything that shines is gold, and I found myself in several situations where I would love to have a lightning adapter with me.

You probably feel identified with this situation: You are on a place where several people around you only have micro usb chargers so you can’t charge your iPhone :(. Lets face it, its really uncomfortable to carry a 1m cable on your pocket, and even so, remembering to always take it with you is another hassle.

In Europe, the micro USB connector has been set as a standard for mobile devices, so Apple is obliged to at least sell an adapter that would allow you to use any micro USB cable with their lightning devices. I wanted to test this, and today I received the Apple adaptor I purchased online.

Apple is one of the most important technological companies in the world, they invest billions in research and development to bring us super cool, powerful and functional products. I have several of them actually and I really like them, yet, they fail to deliver a simple thing: A dock compatible with their own cases!

This is not the first time they make this mistake, (yes I am assuming its a mistake), in the past I remember having an iPhone 4S and having exactly the same problem, with their own bumper it was almost impossible to find a dock compatible with their device. I ended finding a dock in China that was available with a longer 30 pin connector that would allow me to use my case with it.

With the recent launch of iOS 7 a lot of new functions could suck up our precious battery from our iPhone, we prepared a list of things that you can do to maximize its performance. Check which things you really don’t use or need and consider disabling them to get as much as battery during your day.

I personally prefer to have a balanced power administration without limiting the devices great functions. Hope this list helps you find your way too 😉 Just keep in mind that if you disable everything and you make your phone super power efficient you would be taking a big part of the “smart” part of your phone or iPad 🙂